Mining and loading apparatus



June 15 1926.

W. J. WILSON' MINING .AND v LOADING APPARATUS.

Filed-Dec. 19, 1921 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. l. Unn/ o Q ...kunnwnhmwwb .IDW \h/ y June 15 1926.

W. J. WILSON MINING AND LOADING APPARATUS 1 2 Sheets-Shea?.` 2

Filed Dec. 19, 1921 latented June 1926.

UNI-TED -.STATES 1,588,554 i, PATENT oFFicEU. i

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Inmac Lomme' remmen Appnau'on mea nece-miner While this invention relates to machines or apparatus intended for (general mining purposes, it is particularly a apted lfor min- 1ng coal and is constructed wlth a view of attacking the coal in a manner which will .be most favorable to mining and removing the same with the least possible amount of the otherl so that the 'second cutter arm may -be removing material which is unsupported on lthe side of the cut as well as-on the j'face' and/inI general to provide suoli an improved apparatus as will be described more fully inthe following specifications. In the accompanying vdrawings illustratinvr this invention,

v igure 1 is a side view showing the machine in operative position;

Figure2 is a planview; A A Figure 3 is a section taken on vthe line 3-3 of Figure 1; and

Figure 4 is a detail showing the vdistribution of the bits on the cuttinhains.

This improved machine has a or base 5 which isadapted to be moved aroundon the oor of the mine; The carf riage or frame 6 is slidabl mounted in the pan` 5 and is reciprocate to the carriage while the piston rod 9 .is secured at itsouter end to' a cross bar 10 which is carried by u rights 11 on the an 5. The cylinder may e supplied with' uid from any suitable source as from a pump 12 but the connections are vomitted as. thely form no part of the resent invention.k conveyer 13 extends rom thejront ofthe carriage '6 backwardly and then upward to discharge into cars orv the like. This conveyer may be driven inany convenient manner as by means of a motor at the up er end thereof, such motor being omitted or convenience in illustration.

The carriage 6 has two brackets 14higed at the forward end, and having swin mg' means such as the screws 14', these brac ets having sultable bearings for a transverse ttom pan by means of av hydraulic jack 7. The cylinder 8 is secured 19,1921. semi-iro. saam, 1

'shea 15 at the f'p. thereof.. Thiel-elisa is driven by a motor 16 through suitable trans# mission mechanism. This mecha-nismicom- 'prises .a pinion 17 ongthe motor 16 which f drives a gear 18 on ya cross shaft 19 mounted in bearings on the carriage 6. A bevel gear,

20'is mounted on the shaft 19 and is drlven by aclutch 21. The gear 20 meshes with afbevel bear22 on a telescoping ydriving' shaft 23 which shaft is mounted in suitable bearings and. carries a bevel ar 24 at its-v forward end which meshes wit abevel'gea'rf 254 secured to the shaft'15.

A s eries ofl cutterI bars 26, 27, 28 and 29 are Aplvotally mounted von the shaft andl each arm is swung or operated by ia vcorresponding hydraulic-jaa 30,531, 32 or 33.

As the construction ofthe several bars and their connections with the Y jacks: -is substantially the same it will only vbe necessary to descrlbe one of them. .F or instance, the

bar 26 has a downwardly extending arm 34 which -is connected to the piston. rod 35 of the cylinder 36 ofthe jack 30' The end of the c linder 36 is pivoted on across shaft 37 w ich is mounted in brackets 38 on the.

carriae't. These. cylinders may be supplied Awith uid from any suitable source as from vthe pump 12 and an suitable controlling ldevices may be provi ed whereby the oper' ator may control each c linder separately, ,but these devices are o well-known construction and are therefore omitted'from .the drawings.

.39 so that the driving Asprocket 40 on the .and will drive the chain' 41 which is guided at its outer end by the sprocket 42. An auxiliary cutter bar 43 is carried by the cutter -bar 26 and: serves to 'support an auxiliary cutter chain 44. In the construe# tion shown, a stub shaft 45 is secured in' a hub 46 at therear end of the barl 2 6 and engages with the rear endl of the bar 43. VA guide sprocket 47 is mounted on the stub shaftA 45,and serves to guidethe chain 44.

The cutter bar 26 is offset from its bearing shaft 15 will be in ahgnment withjthe bar l At the outer end of the arm 26 a stub shaft '48 is rotatably mounted in a bearing at the end of the bar 26`and is keyed or otherwise secured .to the sprocket 42 so that it v -is driven by said sprocket.- This shaft lalso engages with a bearing in the outer end of."

the arm 43 and serves' to support the end of this arm. A driving sprocket- 49 is also to the shaft 48 and serves to` drive is left between these sets which is subst-antially as wide as the respective sets. lVith this arrangement a cut is made with the machine in one position and then the machine is swungor shiftedso that one set will cut the material left between them in lthe preceding'cut while the other set will make a cut at one side of the original posi tion and in this way all ofthe material will beexcavated in a spaceapproximately one andl one-fourth times the width of the machine for each cut.

While the machine may be operated in various ways 1n accordance with diiferent mining conditions, the following operation.

may be considered as a typical one for ordinary practice. The machine is brought into position adjacent to the face and the cutter arms are swungupwardly by the hydraulic jacks so as to bring vthe cutters into' position to make a sumping cut adjacent to the roof. This cut is made by feeding the carriage 6 forwardly by means of the hydraulic `jack 7 and during Lthis operation the pan is preferably held by means of jacks 51 which may bek arranged in any suitable position. When the sump; ing cut has been made, the cutter arms are swung downwardly so as to make arcuate cuts as indicated in Figure 1. .In thisdownward movement the feeding is assisted by gravity but the controlling jacks may be used as far as necessary. It will also be noted that by moving the 'carriage 6 the form of the cut maybe varied In this downward movement of the cutter arms one arm is preferably moved slightly in advance of the adjacent one so that the material which is cut by thel following arm will be unsupported on the corresponding side. This together with the irregular depths caused lby the diferent lengths of the cutter arms will tend to break out large pieces of material. Furthermore, after the first cut has been made and the machine is swung to cut out the'rib left between the sets of cutters practically all of the coal in this rib will be unsupported at the sides so that large portions may be broken away. After the material is mined and brought out to the face it falls down to the bottom of the machine where it is collected by the conveyer 13 `and carried back to be dumped intocars or the like.

From this description it will be seen that I provide a machine which is comparatively simple in construction and one which is adapted to attack coal in a favorable manner for mining the same with the least amount of power and one which will also produce large cuttings of mined material.

Having thus described my invention,l

rality of cutter arms pivotally mounted on said carriage adapted to swing vertically and means for swingingeach of said cutter arms and means which may be manually controlled during the operation of the'machine for regulating the swinging of said arms.l

3. The combination of a base, a slidable carriage mounted in said base, a hydraulic jack for reciprocating said carriage, a horizontal shaft supported on said carriage, a motor, means for driving the shaft from the motor, 'a plurality of cutter armsmounted on said shaft and adapted to swing vertically, cutter chains carried by said arms and driven by said shaft and a hydraulic jack connected with each of said arms for swinging the same. l

4. The combination of a bottom an, a carriage mounted in the pan, a hy raulic jack for rciprocating said carriage, a. conveyer arranged lengthwise of the carriage and extending rearwardly thereof, a support at the forward end of the carriage, a horizontal shaft mounted in said su port, a motor, means for turning the shaft from the motor, a luralit-y of cutter bars mounted on said s aft and provided with cutter chains, means for driving the chains from A said shaft, each of saidA bars being provided with an auxiliary bar having a cutter -chain mounted thereon and driven by theL chain -on the main cutter bar, larms projecting from said bars and hydraulic jacks connected with said arms and adapted to swing the shaft in alignment with the' respective bars, guide sprockets at the-outer ends of the bars, cutter chains mounted on said sprockets, auxiliary7 cutter bars secured to the first-named bars, guidevsprockets at the inner ends of the auxiliary bars, driving sprockets at the outerl ends of the auxiliary bars, said driving sprockets being rotatably connected With the guide sprockets of the first-named bars, and cutter chains mounted onthe sprockets of the 'auxiliary bars.

6. The combination with a cutter arm having a cutter chain provided with cutting bits, of a second cutter arm secured to the first-named arm and. provided with a cutter chain and meansy for driving the second chain from the first chain, the ar' manually controlled power means for swing-A ing'each arm independently of the other arms.

8. In a mlning machine, the Ycombination of av plurality of cutter arms, 'a common shaft on which said arms are mounted,` `cutter chalns carried by vsald arms and driven by said shaft, said arms being arranged in lsets' containing two or more arms with a space betweenl the sets and means for swinging each arm independently of the other arms.

9. In a mining machine, the combination ofa support, brackets mounted on said sup,- port, a horizontal shaft mounted in said brackets, a motor, means for driving the shaft from the motor, a plurality of cutter arms mounted on said shaft, each arm having a cutterA chain driven from the shaft and also having an auxiliary cutter chain with a cutting chain driven from the chain `on lthe main arm and manually controlled means for swinging said arms.

l0. In a mining machine, the combination of a shaft, a bearing on said shaft, an offset arm carried by the bearing, a drive sprocket on the shaft in alignment with the arm, -a stub shaft mounted in a bearing at the outer end` of the arm," a sprocket secured to said stub shaft, a cutter chain mounted on said sprockets, an auxiliary arm secured to the side ofthe first named arm, a guide sprocket at the inner end of said auxiliary arm, a driving sprocket at' the outer end of the arm secured to said stub shaft, and a cutterl chain carried by the last named sprocket.

11. The combinationwith a main cutter '65',

thereto and carried arm havingv a cuttino chain, cutter arm securetI therebyy andhaving a chain provided with cutting bits driven from a chain on the of an auxiliary main arm, the bits on said chains being ari ranged to cut a kerf adapted to clear said arms and cutter chains.

WALTER J. WILSON. 

